Cher goes classic for new tour starting in Las Vegas

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Veteran singer and performer Cher is not slowing down at 70, bringing her catalog of classic pop hits to a new North American residency show early next year.

The singer announced her "Classic Cher" tour on Tuesday, which will open in February for three weeks at the Park Theater in Las Vegas' Monte Carlo venue, then move to Maryland in March before returning to Las Vegas in May.

"You try to take the most important things from each decade and you try to distill them into a story about yourself and you try to do it with film clips and music and movement and costume and then you make it as entertaining as you can," Cher told Reuters.

The Oscar and Grammy-winning performer, known for her eccentric and flamboyant costumes and her sultry vocals, has adopted numerous musical genres over her career spanning five decades, dabbling in dance and pop to rock and folk sounds.

Her hits over the years have included "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down," "If I Could Turn Back Time," "The Shoop Shoop Song" and "Believe."

She has also starred in a number of high-profile films including 1987's "Moonstruck," for which she won the best actress Oscar.

Although the singer has performed thousands of times, she said she still suffers from stage fright.

"Right before I go on, I always want my mother," she said.

"I'm like 'I want my mother' but then you go on ... and then you go 'This isn't quite as bad as I thought' and then when the end of the first song happens, it's like 'ok, this is kind of good' and then it gets better and better."